Climber Account Basics

Registered climbers can log into the VRMC site and then use special pages to record climb data and thereby keep track of their progress toward completing the Thirteeners list. There are three basic steps: create an account and have a temporary password emailed to you, log in and choose a more convenient password, and then enter your climb data:

Creating a New Account

Click the “Create VRMC Account” link in the top-right corner of the page.

Enter the requested personal information and then click the “Create New Climber” button.

As requested in the alert that appears, check your email account (including your Junk folder, if necessary) for an email from <Webmaster@VulgarianRamblers.org>. This email contains your temporary password (as well as the directions which follow).

Entering Climb Data

Click the “Add New Climb” button that appears near the bottom of the page describing that peak.

Fill the information for this climb into the fields.

(Repeat from Step #3 for other climbs of the same peak.)

(Repeat from Step #1 for other peaks you’ve climbed.)

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q: Why do I have to go through that temporary password annoyance? Why can’t I just choose a password when I first create my account?

A: I need some way to ensure that the email address you enter allows me to reliably contact you if/when necessary. Although you can subsequently change your email address, I keep a record of the email addresses you’ve entered. There are other ways to accomplish this same goal, but they’ve either just as annoying or involve special URLs that at least some of you would probably ignore. Although annoying, the current solution is relatively elegant, in that the new account is created immediately with full access. The temporary password differs only in that it was chosen by the system.

Q: I forgot my password (either the temporary one or the one I chose myself). Is there a way to find out what it’s currently set to so that I can log in to my account?

A: Yes. If you’ve never changed your password, the first place to look would be your In Box, Junk folder, or where you might have filed the email that was sent to you when you first created your account.

The email will be sent to the address you entered when you created or last edited your Climber Info. If you no longer have access to that email account, you’ll need to send an email to Webmaster@VulgarianRamblers.org explaining what went wrong and requesting divine intervention.

Q: How can I tell if I’m logged into the VRMC site?

A: If you truly are logged in, then your user name should appear in the “Climber Info” in the top-right corner of the page and there should be a “Log out” button below this link. Peaks for which you have already entered climb data will have green checkmarks beside them (unless you’ve looking at someone else’s list progress).

Q: I’m logged in and looking at the list of California Thirteeners, but I don’t see a way for me to tell the VRMC site that I’ve climbed one of the peaks. Where are the missing controls?

A: Climb data for a peak is entered via that peak’s detail page. Click the name of the peak you climbed, click the “Add New Climb” button near the bottom of the page describing the peak and then enter the data for that climb. Repeat this process for all of the other climbs you’ve made.

Q: Why isn’t there an “Add New Climb” button on the “Climbs by [username]” page?

A: I’d still need some way for you to specify which peak you’d climbed. By forcing you to go to the peak detail page, I avoid having a pop-up list with 147 items or more (even if there was some sophisticated “type to find” functionality). Instead, I suggest that you use your browser’s find functionality to search for the peak on the Thirteeners list page.

Q: Why doesn’t the peak rank, elevation or prominence in the peak list match what is reported on the peak detail page?

A: The official peak rank, elevation and prominence reported on the peak detail page are always determined via ‘Best available data’ (the VRMC passing criteria). Data reported in a peak list on the My Peaks page is determined via the passing criteria selected by the user on the My Peaks page. Thus, clicking on a peak name in a list using non-VRMC passing criteria may display a peak detail page with a completely different rank, elevation and prominence.